Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia is celebrating the Legislature’s approval of two measures he helped draft designed to provide more control of local government spending.
Both chambers passed the bill (HB 1329) sponsored by Republican Rep. Yvette Benarroch. Republican Sen. Nick DiCeglie sponsored the companion measure (SB 1566). The main objective of the legislation is to require cities and county governments to post their budgets and employee salaries online in an easily accessible and transparent format for taxpayers to view.
“As Chief Financial Officer, I have made it my mission to provide real transparency into local governments’ spending so Floridians know exactly what their tax dollars will go towards. For far too long, local governments have benefited from ambiguity and inaccessibility in their spending habits,” Ingoglia said in a news release Monday.
Gov. Ron DeSantis still needs to sign the measure.
Ingoglia was inspired to push for the bills following his crusade for most of the past year where he has traveled around the state and blasted local governments for “overspending.” He has singled out more than a dozen municipalities for his scathing reviews that he says has uncovered nearly $2 billion in overspending.
While the measures were an offshoot of Ingoglia’s haranguing local municipalities, there was some pushback among some lawmakers during the legislative process.
During the Senate Community Affairs Committee review, Democratic Sen. Barbara Sharief warned that local counties are already publishing their budget information online and said the added requirements were a financial burden on them.
DiCeglie did amend the original wording of the measure and removed requirements to post travel expenses and a proposed stipulation that would have allowed Ingoglia to fine local governments who violated transparency rules. He also removed a provision that would have banned those governments from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion.
